A standard tape dispenser/applicator has a housing containing a roll of tape having a sticky side coated with a contact adhesive. In a standard arrangement such as described in European patent document 92,187, German 3,109,735, German 2,801,540, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,274 the tape passes sticky side out under an applicator roller that is rotatably mounted on an edge of the housing so that this roller can press the tape down against a substrate the tape is to be applied to. Thus the user presses the applicator roller down to adhere the end of the tape to the substrate, then pulls the housing along the substrate to pay out the tape while simultaneously pressing it to the substrate, and lifts it at the end of the desired path, normally thereby actuating an automatic cutter in the device or bringing a blade into engagement across the tape to cut off the piece stuck to the substrate.
The applicator roller itself is normally a cylindrical body which can be formed at least partially of compressible material as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,181 and French 2,061,281. The roller may also have a hard core.
A problem with this arrangement is that the pressure that is applied to the applicator roller and thence to the tape is wholly determined by how hard the user presses on the device. When the substrate is relatively fragile, for instance tracing paper, the result can be tearing of this substrate or formation of wavy bumps on it due to the occasionally excessive application pressure.